WorkSafeBC inspectors found the Evergreen Line’s builder was violating several workplace health and safety regulations after a construction worker was injured in April.
April 20 inspection documents, obtained under Freedom of Information, said that a worker was struck by a chain hoist that fell 10 feet from a scissor lift in the two-kilometre bored tunnel for the Millennium Line SkyTrain extension.
(Scroll down to view the documents.)
Personal information was censored from the inspection report by officer Mark Valastin, so details of the worker and his or her injury are not visible. Valastin cited employer SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Western) Inc. for providing no effective means of restraint to secure objects from falling and endangering a worker, failing to post signage warning that the tunnel was a confined space and failing to post test results of the tunnel atmosphere at all points of entry.
A followup report said that a compliance plan was in place by May 3 to restrain objects, while compliance had been achieved on the other two orders.
Another WorkSafeBC inspection on May 3 resulted in seven more orders against SNC-Lavalin, including failure to assign anyone to monitor workers at least every 20 minutes and call for rescue personnel in case of emergency.
Although hazard assessments were conducted for each type of work contemplated inside the tunnel, none of the assessments included a low, moderate or high rating.
The report found that information was missing about who, where, when and how atmospheric testing and ventilation airflow testing would be performed and what personal protective equipment was required to minimize hazards to workers. The company also had no documentation about the duties or procedures for standby personnel, rescue personnel or a rescue plan.
A June 1 followup inspection found deficiencies continued, particularly in monitoring of workers in the tunnel.
The inspection report also noted that SNC-Lavalin’s hazard assessment and written confined entry procedures were not prepared by a qualified person with adequate training and experience in recognition, evaluation and control of confined space hazards.
After a six-month tunnel-boring delay in spring and summer 2015, the machine broke ground last November 27. A nine-metre, floor-to-ceiling wall was completed in April to split the Evergreen Line tunnel in half, with eight passage doors along the two-kilometre stretch. The project is now expected to open by Christmas, six months late, yet the government claims it remains within the $1.43 billion budget. Earlier this year, the government and SNC-Lavalin entered mediation after the troubled Montreal engineering firm reported tunnelling cost overruns to its investors.
Meanwhile, on September 8, the BC Federation of Labour’s president said SNC-Lavalin should be fined after WorkSafeBC found it fired mechanic David Britton in 2014 after he complained about danger on the job.
Irene Lanzinger said B.C. workers fought hard to achieve the right to refuse unsafe work without fear of retribution.
Britton and crane operator Julio Serrano both complained to WorkSafeBC. Serrano’s file remains under investigation.
SNC-Lavalin was also the lead contractor on the 2009-opened Canada Line. Crane worker Andrew Slobodian died in a January 2008 accident. WorkSafeBC cancelled the original $82,000 fine upon review in 2011. SNC-Lavalin and its joint venture partners succeeded in reducing the administrative penalty from $233,536 to $106,036.
The B.C. government refuses to release under Freedom of Information cashflow and change order information for the Evergreen Line. It also wants to charge $45 a month for copies of SNC-Lavalin’s monthly project status reports.
